How to get a Russian MIR bank card before your trip (from abroad)

Irena

Hi everyone!
I’ve just published a step-by-step guide on how I managed to get a MIR card from YooMoney without being in Russia and without a Russian phone number.

Spoiler: yes, it’s possible to do everything remotely with your passport and a selfie. The real challenge is topping up the card in rubles from outside Russia, since YooMoney doesn’t accept international cards.

In this article, I explain exactly how I did it from Spain, which exchanger I used to fund it, how long the card took to arrive, and what to expect from the process:

👉 How to Get a MIR Bank Card Before Traveling to Russia

If anyone else has tried this or is in the process, feel free to join the discussion — let’s share tips and experiences 🙌

KO______

I tried to get a T-bank card back in March at the LED airport, no Russian number needed, but my UK number didn't get any of their text messages. I might consider this option before my next visit.

Irena

KO______ SMS messages from YooMoney work fine

KO______

Sounds good, I'll give it a try later and let you know.

SeanFarley1964

Hi, I managed to create the Ю Money account and a Volet account. However its impossible to add funds to the Volet account as they refuse the verification process for UK citizens. I got this message:

Please note that due to changes in crypto asset legislation in the UK, we will temporarily not be accepting new verification applications from UK users starting Oct 8th 2023.

Unfortunately the UK government being extremely russophobic make life for its own citizens very difficult

phoebe

Volet has been unavailable to UK nationals for at least a year

swede28

I will add that it is actually possible to transfer from Bybit with USDT at a good exchange.

I selected Mir card as my payment option, and then found and advertisement that made it clear they transferred through bank number and not SBP, which you need a Russian number for. I was able to get a pretty good exchange rate, 1 USD = 80 RUB.

Another option as someone mentioned is get Revolut, get a visa (I was only able to get Mastercard, but after talking to support I could get a Visa) and to it up with your normal card. Then you can use the visa card on the Yoo money website to buy rubles for around 1 USD = 72 RUB, decent exchange, but still bad.

So bybit can definitely be used like this fairly easily. And topping it up with a visa is a really good option in an emergency where you don’t have time or battery to do P2P.

Irena

swede28 Thanks for sharing your tip. Could you please let me know which advertiser on Bybit lets you transfer to a Mir card (Yoomoney) without needing a Russian phone number? I’ve been looking but haven’t been able to find any.

Many thanks in advance!

swede28

Irena
I’ve found a few that does it, generally I found that choosing “Bank transfer (Ru)” as payment option gets the best result, then read the description.

I can list 3 advertisers I’ve found if you want

swede28

swede28 Some explicitly say they only transfer by Bank number, this is the ones you want. If they say they need a number, you can mutually cancel it through appeal, it doesn’t affect your reputation. The rate is worse than through SBP, so I mostly send to my girlfriend who in turn sends to me.

Some list their telegram aswell, you can ask them there if they do by bank transfer through card number.

w1ldflower1

swede28 Hejsan, kan du vänligen dela namnen? Jag har aldrig köpt krypto.

crg_root

I used a virtual YooMoney MIR card, enrolled in Mir Pay app from Ru Store. I used then SberBank ATMs to deposit rubles in my YooMoney account, and then the phone to pay almost everywhere (through MirPay), which was way better then relying just on cash.

For some reason YooMoney Pay didn't work on my phone before my trip to Russia, but it worked just fine there.

Irena

crg_root Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, it’s super helpful!

By the way, are you using an Android or an iPhone? What is the procedure you have followed? Thanks!